Press Clips Week 22-2017

Human Space Colony On Mars Would be Awful Idea, ESA Chief Says

Living on Mars would not be as rad as people think. The head of the European Space Agency himself doesn’t seem too keen on becoming a Martian immigrant, based on what he said at this week’s U.K. Space Conference in Manchester, England.

“If you go to Mars … you cannot go outside for a small walk,” ESA director general Johann-Dietrich Wörner told the Times Wednesday. “Always you have to be sheltered and covered, but you cannot even bring your dog to the next tree. … Mars is not nice.”

During a conference that also featured speakers like former International Space Station astronaut Tim Peake, astrophysics professors and space company founders, Wörner emphasized the difference between visiting a planet and inhabiting one. “Humans will fly to Mars, for sure. Humans will fly to the moon again, for sure. But colonization — that always sounds to me as though we should leave the Earth. And I hope that we will not leave the Earth in the next 3 billion years, but that humans will find a way to secure life on Earth.”

The Immune System in Space

Getting sick when you’re far from home is a drag. You’d give anything to crawl into your own soft bed and sleep, but you’re stuck in a cookie-cutter hotel room feeling like a sick fish out of water. Well, it could be worse. You could be an astronaut on the way to Mars—a really long way from mom’s chicken soup.

Future space travelers will need to stay healthy to perform well for their own safety and for mission success. So it’s important to understand how extended space travel will affect them.

The immune system works unnoticed to protect the body, but even subtle changes in that all-important system may be linked to the onset of illness. Factors like radiation, microgravity, stress, and altered sleep cycles could all affect astronaut immune systems. A new NASA study entitled ‘Functional Immune’ will investigate the immune system changes that occur in International Space Station (ISS) crewmembers. Understanding these immune system changes may help scientists pinpoint the onset of illness, and suggest monitoring strategies, or treatments, that can boost the immune system and prevent full-blown infections and diseases here on Earth.

Astronauts Struggle to Sleep Among the Stars

An odd thing happens to astronauts as they zip around the Earth at roughly 17,500 miles per hour: They don’t get enough sleep.

This may be partly because astronauts don’t have to wake up early to see daybreak; they get a sunrise and a sunset every 90 minutes. “It’s far too fast for the body clock to adapt to, and so they essentially experience a perpetual jet lag,” said Erin Flynn-Evans, director of NASA’s Fatigue Countermeasures Laboratory. Without external cues like sunlight, humans tend to settle into a sleep cycle that is slightly longer than 24 hours: about 24.2 hours on average. “That extra 12 minutes doesn’t seem like a lot, but … after a couple of weeks, you’re going to be falling asleep several hours later than you did the first day,” Flynn-Evans said.

How Does Fire Burn in Space?

Shortly after the Cygnus cargo vehicle (which launched in March 2017) undocks from the International Space Station on June 4, 2017, a team of researchers from NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC), Universities Space Research Association (USRA) and Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) will conduct the Spacecraft Fire Experiment-III (SAFFIRE III).

SAFFIRE III is the third in a series of six flight experiments to better understand how flames spread in microgravity and increase understanding of how an accidental fire might behave in space. “The SAFFIRE portfolio of experiments is providing the best data yet on how large fires behave in the microgravity environment of space,” said Christopher Pestak, Director of USRA operations at NASA GRC.

Spaceport Checkup Delays Proton Return to Flight to June 7

The first launch of Russia’s Proton rocket in nearly a year is now scheduled for June 7, a nine-day slip driven by a review of the ground systems at the rocket’s launch site. When Proton finally lifts off, it will be carrying EchoStar 21, a 6,900-kilogram commercial telecommunications satellite for Englewood, Colorado-based fleet operator EchoStar.

Proton’s manufacturer, Moscow-based Krunichev Space Center, said May 30 that preparations are underway for the launch from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Karen Soriano, spokesperson for International Launch Services, Khrunichev’s Reston, Virginia-based commercial launch service division, said Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos needed extra time to complete a quality audit of Proton’s launch operations.

BEAM Inflatable Space Habitat has Successful 1st Year in Orbit

The inflatable habitat that was attached to the International Space Station last year has shown that it can protect astronauts from micrometeoroids and bits of space debris. Now, NASA will test whether the structure can also shield astronauts from space radiation during future missions to deep space.

Built by Bigelow Aerospace as part of a mission partnership with NASA, the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) is the first privately built expandable room that has launched to the space station. Throughout BEAM’s first year in space, researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center and astronauts on board the space station have studied the module’s ability to withstand space debris, according to a statement from the agency.

Soyuz MS-03 Crew Returns to Earth After Nearly 200 Days in Space

Landing on the Kazakh Steppe, two members of the International Space Station’s (ISS) Expedition 51 crew returned to Earth on June 2, 2017, after spending 196 days in orbit. Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet landed in their Soyuz MS-03 capsule about an hour before sunset local time at 8:10 p.m. (10:10 a.m. EDT / 14:10 GMT).

The duo left behind Peggy Whitson, who launched with them back on Nov. 17, 2016. In April, she was granted a three-month mission extension. Even though Whitson was commander of the space station for Expedition 51 and is staying aboard the ISS, she handed over the reigns of the outpost to Russian astronaut Fyodor Yurchikhin during a change of command ceremony on June 1. Whitson will return to Earth with Yurchikhin and fellow astronaut Jack Fischer on Sept. 3, 2017, in Soyuz MS-04, which launched on April 20, 2017.

Healthy Vision Month, NASA’s One-Year Mission investigators are peering into their new findings to help address astronaut vision issues. While the One-Year Mission has concluded for retired astronaut Scott Kelly, NASA’s Human Research Program is focusing on comparing previous six-month mission findings to One-Year Mission preliminary findings.

Nutritional Biochemistry Lab lead Scott M. Smith, Ph.D., takes a broad look at biochemistry. He studies the astronaut diets along with protein, vitamin, mineral, and other chemicals in blood and urine to look for indicators of disease or other physiological changes. His team discovered that astronauts with vision issues had biochemical differences before ever leaving Earth as compared to astronauts without vision issues, and subsequently documented that this was evidence of a genetic predisposition for some astronauts to develop vision and eye issues. He thinks his team is on the path to help resolve vision issues for astronauts. This is an important finding as NASA prepares for a human journey to Mars.

Schiaparelli did More Things Right Than it did Wrong

On October 16 of last year, ESA’s Schiaparelli lander separated from the Russian-European ExoMars-Trace Gas Orbiter mothership and started its free flight towards the surface of the Red Planet. Things did not go as many space enthusiasts had hoped. Now, with the completion of the Schiaparelli landing investigation and publication of the summary of its report, we may draw conclusions about the things the lander did right and what it did wrong.

In 2016, I published an article discussing why the Schiaparelli mission should be counted as an overall success (see “Why ESA’s Schiaparelli Mars can still be considered an overall success”, The Space Review, October 24, 2016). The report summary confirms my opinion. I still think that Schiaparelli was judged unfairly in the days after the mishap occurred, and that’s why I plead for reconsideration of Schiaparelli’s worth.

Enormous Stratolaunch Aircraft Rolled Out for First Time

Billionaire Paul G. Allen’s Stratolaunch, a massive aircraft designed to launch rockets into space from high altitude, has been rolled out of its hangar for the first time in preparation for testing. The Stratolaunch aircraft is enormous, with a wingspan totaling 385 feet (117 meters), longer than the wingspan of any other aircraft and greater than the length of an American football field. Its twin fuselages stretch 238 feet. By comparison, the H-4 flying boat — nicknamed Spruce Goose and built by Howard Hughes in the 1940s — has a 320-foot (97.5-meter) wingspan and is just under 219 feet (67 meters) long. Among commonly seen aircraft, the double-decker Airbus A380’s wings span 262 feet (nearly 80 meters).

The Stratolaunch aircraft weighs 500,000 pounds (226,799 kilograms) empty, can carry 250,000 pounds (113,399 kilograms) of fuel, and with payload can take off at a maximum weight of 1.3 million pounds (589,676 kilograms). It is powered by six engines of the same type used by Boeing 747s.

Mojave Journal: Good Rockets are Hard to Find

Checking my messages on Wednesday at LAX after a long flight from back east, I was startled to learn that Paul Allen’s ginormous Stratolaunch aircraft had been rolled out of its hangar for the first time in Mojave while I was in transit. I had been expecting some official roll-out ceremony later this year ala SpaceShipTwo where the press and public could get a good look at the twin fuselage, WhiteKnightTwo-on-steroids air-launch platform.

But, for better or worse, Paul Allen is not Richard Branson, and Scaled Composites — which built the aircraft — is most assuredly not Virgin Galactic. So, the press would have to settle for a quiet roll out and some photos and videos provided by the company.

What they show is stunning enough. At 238 feet long, 50 feet high and spanning 385 feet from wing tip to wing tip, the Stratolaunch carrier plane is an absolute monster that makes everything around it — people, vehicles, ground equipment — l0ok tiny by comparison. It’s going to be spectacular — and undoubtedly nerve wracking — sight when that beast roars down Runway 30 powered by six Boeing 747 engines and lifts off into the Mojave sky for the first time.

Virgin Galactic Nears Next Phase of SpaceShipTwo Test Program

Virgin Galactic performed another glide flight of SpaceShipTwo June 1 as the company suggested it was nearing a new phase in the test program of the suborbital spaceplane.

The flight, in the skies above the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, was the fifth free flight of the second SpaceShipTwo, named VSS Unity, and the first in a month. The vehicle was released from its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft and glided to a safe landing back at the airport.

The company said they used this flight to test the handling characteristics of the vehicle in conditions closer to that of a typical flight. A ballast tank, loaded with about 450 kilograms of water, was placed in the rear of the fuselage to simulate a fuel tank. That water was jettisoned during the course of the glide flight, allowing pilots to study how the spaceplane flew as its center of gravity changed. In a statement, the company suggested that it was nearing the end of an initial phase of glide flights that tested the SpaceShipTwo’s aerodynamic performance, including the use of its feathering system that raises the vehicle’s twin tail booms during reentry.

ISRO’s Mega Rocket Launch: All You Need to Know About GSLV Mark III

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set to launch the heaviest rocket – Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk III) – which will be India’s preferred vehicle to carry astronauts into space. The 640-ton GSLV Mk III rocket will be launched on June 5 and will also test tests a new satellite system. The GSLV Mk III weighs more than the combined weight of 200 full grown Asian elephants. “The success of GSLV Mk III will usher a new era of our self- reliance in the context of launching our own four ton class of satellites for geosynchronous missions,” said former ISRO Chairman Dr K Kasturirangan.

GSLV Mk III took over 15 years to complete and costs over Rs. 300 crore. On its maiden launch, GSLV Mk III will put a 3136 kg satellite in the orbit. Termed as the monster rocket, Mark III is as high as a 13-storey building and can launch satellites as heavy as 4 tonnes. The rocket is powered by an indigenous cryogenic engine that uses liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen as propellants. GSLV Mk III can carry 6 to 10 tons of payloads into space.

Earth is Impacted by Meteors Often

The Earth is also impacted by meteors all the time. At any given time, tiny meteors in the upper atmosphere provide a reflective path for radio waves to bounce around the Earth to contact distant stations. Just watch for a while and you’re like to see a visible meteor streak across the sky.

Larger impacts are much rarer, because there are far fewer large bodies out there. But just last February, a fireball with the explosive power of the Hiroshima atomic bomb struck over the Atlantic Ocean hundreds of miles from Brazil. According to NASA, it was the largest since the Chelyabinsk meteor over Russia in 2013, but no one really noticed it because it was far out to sea.

The Arizona Fireball has a Name: English Version is Cibecue Star Rock

Far out in the asteroid belt, more than 200 million miles from Earth, an asteroid the size of a Volkswagen Beetle lazily orbited the sun. Then something — we’ll never know what — disturbed it. It was knocked out of its orbit into an elliptical orbit. It swung closer and closer to the sun. Then, last summer on June 2, it roared into Earth’s atmosphere at 40,000 miles per hour. This random chain of cosmic events landed it on the homeland of the White Mountain Apache Tribe in eastern Arizona.

Now it has a name. The tribe has named their meteorite Dishchii’bikoh Ts’iłsǫǫsé Tsee. In English, it is Cibecue Star Rock. It was officially confirmed Monday. Recovered by an Arizona State University team during a three-day expedition, it is a meteorite like no other ever studied. “It does contain things we have not seen before,” said Laurence Garvie, research professor and curator of the Center for Meteorite Studies in the School of Earth and Space Exploration.

The first launch of Russia’s Angara-A5M heavy rocket is planned from the Vostochny cosmodrome in 2021, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin wrote on Facebook on Saturday.

“On June 3, the defense-industry complex’s board and Roskosmos outlined priority works to make a new super-heavy class rocket and to build infrastructures at the Vostochny cosmodrome,” he wrote. “The first launch of the Angara-A5M heavy rocket from Vostochny is planned for 2021.”

Earlier reports were that Roskosmos cancelled works on a piloted version of the Angara-A5 rocket – Angara-A5P, and suspended construction of infrastructures for piloted launches at the Vostochny cosmodrome until the super-heavy rocket is made.

There is Almost Definitely Life On Mars

It was a historic evening on August 6 PDT when NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity landed on the Red Planet.

Curiosity’s mission was to determine whether Mars had once offered environmental conditions favourable for microbial life. Curiosity began it’s work by sampling two mudstone slabs in an area known as Yellowknife Bay. Curiosity shocked the world when it found that these slabs had originated from an ancient riverbed containing mild water, the essential elements for microbial life and a chemical energy source used by microbes here on Earth.

We’d discovered that Mars had all the ingredients necessary for life. However we weren’t certain if they’d had the time to develop. Life may be spontaneously created but it doesn’t evolve in an instant. If the window for life’s evolution in Yellowknife Bay was too small, Mars may well of been an eternally dead planet.

Commercial Crew Vehicles May Fall Short of Safety Threshold

The two companies developing commercial crew vehicles for NASA may not be able to meet a safety threshold specified in their contracts, an agency safety panel found.

At a meeting May 25 of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, members said Boeing and SpaceX were making good progress in improving the safety of their vehicles in advance of test flights scheduled to begin within the next year, but have yet to achieve a key requirement in their Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts.

That requirement is known as loss of crew (LOC), a measure of the probability of death or permanent disability of one or more people on a spacecraft during a mission. The CCtCap contracts included a requirement that the spacecraft have a LOC of 1 in 270 or better. The shuttle program, by comparison, had a LOC of 1 in 90 at the time of the program’s retirement in 2011.

Space Junk Could Destroy Satellites, Hurt Economies

The growing amount of fast-moving space debris orbiting the Earth could lead to catastrophic collisions with satellites, hurting economies, researchers warned Wednesday ahead of a summit to coordinate efforts to remove the junk.

There are an estimated 170 million pieces of so-called “space junk”—left behind after missions that can be as big as spent rocket stages or as small as paint flakes—in orbit alongside some US$700 billion of space infrastructure. But only 22,000 are tracked, and with the fragments able to travel at speeds above 27,000kmh (16,777 mph), even tiny pieces could seriously damage or destroy satellites.

“The space junk problem has been getting worse every year,” Ben Greene, head of Australia’s Space Environment Research Centre which is hosting the two-day conference of international space environment scientists in Canberra, told AFP.

First Private Moon Landing Gears Up for Launch by Year’s End

Down by the hard-packed beaches at the edge of the country, the rumble of rocket launches has defined Florida’s Space Coast for more than half a century. But the end of 2017 could mark the beginning of a new era in solar system exploration. For the first time in history, a private company is going to launch a mission to land on another celestial body.

Moon Express (or MoonEx), a space exploration company powered by industry engineers and Silicon Valley money, is making the final adjustments to its lunar lander in its facilities at Cape Canaveral. Its goal is to achieve something that has only been accomplished by the three largest superpowers in the world: a soft landing on the moon.

Lightning Strike Scrubs June 1 Launch Attempt for CRS-11 Mission

NASA and SpaceX attempted to launch the 11th Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-11) mission to the International Space Station today, June 1. However, Mother Nature dashed hopes the Falcon 9 would launch in the “instantaneous” one-second window. Weather conditions were predicted by the 45th Weather Squadron as having a 30 percent chance of unfavorable conditions at the time of launch. The primary concerns were the anvil and cumulus clouds. However, 30 percent was all it took.

SpaceX called off the launch about 25 minutes before the planned liftoff due to a lightning strike near Kennedy Space Center, which violated the lightning flight rule, which requires no strikes within 10 miles of the pad fewer than 30 minutes before liftoff. The team will try again at 5:07 p.m. EDT (21:07 GMT) on Saturday, June 3, 2017. Unfortunately, on Saturday, the weather is expected to worsen to a 40 percent chance of inclement weather. The primary concerns that day will be the anvil and cumulus clouds as well as fly through precipitation.

Improving the Prediction Model of Spanish Power Grid’s Vulnerability in Solar Storms

In September 1859, a large solar flare caused the most violent geomagnetic storm ever recorded. The Carrington Event was so powerful that it destroyed the telegraph systems of that time. Today, satellites, electric lines, transportation systems,and communications and positioning systems are threatened by the impact of such large-scale geomagnetic storms.

A new study is improving predictions of the vulnerabilities in Spanish electric transport networks, and was recently published in the journal Space Weather. The new research study has been distinguished as a research announcement in the EOS newsletter of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), within the area of geology and geophysics.

The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation space subcommittee has held two hearings seeking input on what more the commercial space industry needs legislatively to further its aspirations in exploiting space. The Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (CSLCA) became law in 2015 and industry has a list additional provisions they believe could help, and apparent consensus on one that would not – changing the 50-year old Outer Space Treaty (OST).

The titles of both hearings began “Reopening the American Frontier” – evoking the country’s westward expansion in the 1800s. The April 26 hearing focused on reducing regulatory barriers while the May 23 hearing looked specifically at how the OST helps or hurts American companies.

The House Science, Space and Technology (SS&T) Committee held its own hearing on reducing regulatory barriers, which also included debate about the OST, in March. Right now, three key members of the House SS&T committee involved in space policy are circulating draft legislation that would assign most responsibility for regulating commercial space activities to the Department of Commerce (DOC). DOC currently regulates commercial remote sensing satellites – a topic on which House SS&T held a hearing last fall.

Spaceport America Cup will Boost the Business Community

June is typically a slow month for most local businesses. School is out and many college students travel back home for their summer break. June is also the time of the year when people plan their summer vacations. Many families pack their belongings and travel to their favorite vacation destination. This can also cause a decline in sales for some businesses. If you are a business owner and concerned about your June sales, don’t worry because it could be a better month than expected.

June 19 through 24, Spaceport America will present their first annual Spaceport America Cup. New Mexico will be welcoming 110 teams from universities across twelve countries to compete in the first annual Spaceport America Cup. Students from Brazil, Egypt, Turkey, India, Mexico, Australia, Colombia, South Korea, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and from states across our great nation will meet for five rocket-filled days in New Mexico.

The Experimental Sounding Rocket Association has hosted 11 years of competition, with over 2,000 students from six different continents has become a new partner of Spaceport America.

Science journalist and space historian Bob Zimmerman recently proposed that the president and Congress establish a Spacestead Act, modeled on the Homestead Act of 1862, that would grant property on extraterrestrial bodies such as the Moon to people who settle there. To enable this “spacesteading,” Zimmerman urges President Trump to withdraw from the current Outer Space Treaty, adopted in 1967, and attempt to negotiate a new one.

But the incentives for most countries to agree to a new treaty rewarding permanent title to those few countries and companies currently able to get to the Moon on their own appear to be thin.

Jeff Bezos Will Leave Richard Branson Behind in the Dust

Let’s face it: by any rational measure so-called space tourism is a preposterously frivolous idea. Nonetheless, hundreds of thrill-seekers were willing to pay around $2,300 a minute for the ride as soon as Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic venture was launched in 2005. The first passenger-carrying flight was supposed to happen 10 years ago, in 2007. It slipped to 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013…now…maybe… next year.

But if once it seemed like an idea whose time would never come (leaving aside for the moment the issue of whether it ever should) Jeff Bezos and his Blue Origin team—not Branson—now seems more than ever likely to be the first to deliver.

Russia on the Way to Adopt New Program on Development of Space Centers

Komarov said in May that the program had been submitted to the government, and it was expected to keep within the budget not exceeding 340 billion rubles (some $6 billion). Vostochny, which has been under construction since 2012, is expected to reduce Russia’s dependency on the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan. Baikonur is on lease to Russia until 2050.

SPIEF, a major global platform for communication between business representatives and discussion of crucial economic issues, kicked off in Russia’s St. Petersburg on Thursday and will continue through Saturday. Sputnik News Agency is the official media partner of the forum.

Iran Drops Program for Sending Humans into Space, Citing Costs

The Iranian government has decided to cancel its program for sending humans into space, according to the Associated Press. The AP reported that the country’s semi-official ILNA news agency broke the story.

In January 2013, Iran sent a monkey into space and stated that its goal is to send a person into space by 2018. However, it appears that this goal requires more funds than the government can allot. The AP report stated that the deputy head of the space organization told ILNA that the cost of the program was too high.

Review: The History of Human Space Flight

Is this the best of times for human spaceflight, or the worst of times? It depends on whom you ask. Some might decide on the latter, given that the hiatus in launches of astronauts on US vehicles will reach six years this July, with likely another year, or more, before commercial crew vehicles start flying. Others might settle on the former, given the unprecedented diversity of vehicles under development today—Orion, Dragon v2, CST-100 Starliner, as well as suborbital vehicles—set to start flying in the next few years, despite developmental delays.

It certainly makes for an interesting chapter in the history of human spaceflight. But, in the new book The History of Human Space Flight by Ted Spitzmiller, that current chapter, and how we got to that point, doesn’t get much attention. While weighing in at more than 600 pages, this book focuses much more on the early history of human spaceflight, examining them in detail while offering far less about the post-Apollo history of humans in space.

Quality Assurance for Space Projects

26-29 June 2017 – Athlone, Ireland

The course is designed to provide the participant with an understanding of basic principles of Quality Management, Quality Assurance and Quality Control, as they are usually applied to space projects. To register, download the Registration Form from the website, fill in and return to: catherine.lenehan@gltechnology.ie.

This course will provide an introduction to the basic principles governing the design and operation of Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels (COPV). The comprehensive overview of current technological understanding will provide both engineering mechanics fundamentals and practical applications drawn from experience to educate program managers, design engineers, ground and flight operators, safety analysts, quality inspectors and users/customers. To register, download the Registration Form from the website, fill in and return to: iaass.academy@gmail.com not later than 15 September 2017.

Re-Entry Safety Analysis

16-17 October 2017 – Toulouse, France

The course is intended to provide the participant with an understanding of how to perform analyses for assessing the safety risk of space systems re-entry operations. Such analyses should be performed during the early stage of design as they may drive the decision to include controlled re-entry capability, to modify components design and materials selection to enhance demise to meet applicable regulatory risk thresholds, and consideration of alternative launch facilities and orbital inclinations. To register, download the Registration Form from the website, fill in and return to: iaass.academy@gmail.com not later than 1 October 2017.

Space Debris: Risk Analysis & Mitigation

16-17 October 2017 – Toulouse, France

The course is designed to provide the participant with an understanding of space debris risks and of mitigation standards, techniques and practices that are used for design and operation of space systems. To register, download the Registration Form from the website, fill in and return to:iaass.academy@gmail.com not later than 1 October 2017.